Lot 118
Karel Malich (1924 - 2019) KAMENEC HILL

46 x 68 cm (h x w)

Starting price
130 000 CZK
   |   5 200 €
Price realized
250 000 CZK
   |   10 000 €
price without premium
Karel Malich is one of the artists who actively contributed to the formation of the Czech postwar art scene. His creative transformation, which started in the early 1960s, is evident in this work – his slow departure from his beloved eastern Bohemian landscape of Holice, his infinite source of inspiration, and transition to the geometric city. This liberation from direct references to the outside world had already started in his White Landscapes from the late 1950s. Since then, the abstract form of Malich's work has been a synthesis of detail, sense of color and the ability to allow the atmosphere, light and configuration of what is seen to come through. This is also the case for this painting. Underpinning the central composition is a golden glade with a line rising from it; another line, in a flood of blue, cuts the picture in two. What results are references to fields that are more recognizable in Malich's younger, less geometric pictures and the small hills around Holice. Trees, houses, the entire landscape, everything gradually disintegrates into simple geometric shapes. Consulted with gallery owner Zdeněk Sklenář.

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